River Description

Has anyone run west Prong of the Little River in the Smoky's from cold water knob down?

From: BoaterTalk
Date: Sep 20 2004, 13:37 GMT
From: southeastcreekin

on sat. a.m. DW and I ran the creek from about the 4th tributary on River Right (going downstream from the headwaters on TN Gazeteer) down to the bridge on Cades Cove Rd.

The run was entertaining...nothing too difficult, but very continuous class three, maybe a couple low end class fours, and there were three of four wood portages.

We hiked in from the West Prong trail extending from Cades Cove Rd, then took a right on Botes Mtn trail...hiked up about 0.5 miles then bushwacked down to the river. The hike was not very difficult, but the bushwacking was typical.

I would recommend this creek to someone that wanted a wilderness experience in the Smoky's (since most stuff is roadside), but didn't want to take on anything harder than class three...and when everything else in the park is blown out...the Little River guage was about 5' when we ran this section and the creek was a medium low level.

The run was gorgeous, a very tight small creek, similar to Thunderhead Prong only not as steep. The night before, when the Little was at 7', the run looked medium high and we tried to run this section by hiking up the creek from the bridge on Cades Cove Road. Wouldn't do that again -- for one the trail crosses the creek several times around some bluffs, and isn't easy to get around on with a boat, and two, I got swarmed by yellow jackets and stung about 15 times and that ended my attempt saturday night. NOT FUN!

anyway..back to the creek....I was wondering if anyone has info on the creek above where we put on..this would be the section from Cold Water Knob to the Fourth Trib on River Right according to TN gazeteer. You could possibly hike in from Anthony Creek.

BTW anybody know anything about Anthony Creek? This would be like a 3.5 mile hike so before doing it, I was wondering if anyone knew whether or not the upper sections were boatable and what the characteristics of that portion of the creek are like.

After running West Prong of the Little saturday morning, DW and I headed over to Tremont and ran from the bridge down, then went back up and hiked up to the top of Thunderhead Prong and ran into the upper section of Tremont then ran Tremont again.

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James Locke

|

14 years ago

You might be better hiking in through the Bote Mountain trail as opposed to West Prong to Bote Mountain trail. Being an old road bed its an easier hike. Would putting in at campsite 18 be easier, advoiding bushwhacking? Or does that cut out too much of the fun?

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